Born in Alton, Illinois, Andrew Schlafly is the son of John Fred Schlafly Jr. (1909-1993), a conservative lawyer, and Phyllis Schlafly (née Stewart in 1924), a conservative activist and founder of the Eagle Forum. Their six children were homeschooled until the age of seven.[8] Andrew Schlafly graduated from Saint Louis Priory School, a private Catholic boys' school, in 1978.[9]

He graduated from Princeton University in 1981 with a B.S.E. cum laude in electrical engineering.[10][11] He went on to study law and earn a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1991), where he graduated magna cum laude.[11] He was a member of the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review (at the same time as USA President Barack Obama, who was Editor-In-Chief of the journal), and he clerked for a federal appellate judge in Washington, D.C.

He married Catherine Agneta Kosarek at a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1984. Ms. Kosarek was a fourth-year medical student at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and also a Princeton graduate.[10] They have two children.

After earning his engineering degree, Schlafly worked as a device physicist for Intel, an electrical engineer at the applied physics laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, and finally at Bell Labs.[10][11] Schlafly became a member of the New York State Bar in 1993[12] and served as an adjunct professor of administrative law at Seton Hall Law School in 1995.[13][2][14] He first worked as an attorney at New York City law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz.[15]

He is currently General Counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons,[16] and has filed three civil matters on their behalf in Connecticut and Texas District Courts. He is their head counsel for their ongoing legal challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, arguing that the government has no business regulating the medical establishment at all, or demanding "evidence-based methodology" in research of new treatments. Aside from his work for AAPS, records reflect that Schlafly has filed one appearance in federal court since his departure from Wachtell, Lipton.[17] Schlafly has appeared on television[18] as a voice for the anti-vaccination movement. According to his recent political campaign contribution declarations he is currently a self-employed attorney.[19]

For several years, he has taught classes in world history, U.S. history, and economics to homeschooled high school age children for a per-student fee. As a volunteer, he teaches eight online courses at the Eagle Forum University,[20] largely from the same course material that he provides for his homeschooling program.
In June 2009, Schlafly wrote an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Eagle Forum for a U.S. Supreme Court case, supporting California's law banning sales of violent video games to minors.[21] In the brief, he accused such games of being the cause of high dropout rates and lack of academic readiness of college freshmen.[22]

He was lead counsel for the committees to recall US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ)[23] and US Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND).[24] In both cases, Schlafly argued that although recall for Senators was never provided for in the Constitution of the United States, a letter George Washington had written to his nephew indicated his "sincere" personal support for the idea, and therefore recall should have been considered implicit. In both cases, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on November 18, 2010 and the North Dakota Supreme Court on December 21, 2010[25] dismissed the petitions before them.

As of May, 2013 Andrew Schlafly is litigating against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (colloquially known as "Obamacare") on behalf of the AAPS in the state of Texas. The thrust of his argument is that the Act violates the Fifth Amendment.[26]

Schlafly has sat on the Board of Directors of Students for Life, a pro-life movement which aims to "end abortion by educating students about the issues of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide".[33] He is a regular participant in the annual March for Life event that takes place in Washington, D.C..

In 2010 he "chartered two large buses for his trip to the March for Life, and hope(d) to have 94 participants, the largest single contingent from New Jersey."[34] He claims to have filled three buses for the 2011 march.[35]

Schlafly was raised as a Roman Catholic, attended a Catholic boys school, and was married in a Catholic church.[10] He interprets the Bible and the events that occur within it literally, believing the Global Flood to have happened approximately 5,300 years ago,[36] as well as holding Young Earth Creationist views. He also seems to believe the God of the Bible to be highly interventionist in present day life, suggesting His or Its direct involvement with everyday occurrences such as the American sporting market and dreams.[37][38]

When considering whether to employ Schlafly as an educator of your children, we feel there are a few issues which should be brought to the attention of potential students, parents and their families. We list some of these, with links to his own statements on the issues, mostly from Conservapedia.

Although the State of New Jersey requires no type of teacher certification for homeschool teachers, nor the use of standardized texts, instruction academically “equivalent” to that in the public schools is required.[39] If legal action is initiated, parents must carry the burden of providing the local superintendent with evidence that the child is in fact receiving equivalent instruction. However, ultimately it is the state that must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the parents failed to provide their child with equivalent education.[40] The law as it relates to homeschooling varies from state to state.[41]

There is currently no evidence in the public domain for his credentials or training in the fields of education or childhood/pre-college development,[2] nor did he declare any training or certification in education in his March 2009 application to the State of New Jersey to establish an education program.[42]

Schlafly's class is not AP-certified,[43] but he does suggest "Students seeking to earn college credit can take the CLEP or AP exams upon successful completion of this course."[44] Schlafly has said he will not seek certification for his course as he feels the board would "censor" him.[45] An apparently experienced homeschooling parent has publicly discussed at length with Schlafly that his course is not at AP level and may poorly prepare students for the exam.[46]

A student taking the AP test upon completion of Mr. Schlafly's class should not expect to be adequately prepared, and without additional preparation, it would be difficult to qualify for college credit. This is rather ironic since his user page has a loud and proud list of college acceptances. The list includes mostly Christian schools like Biola University and Liberty University.

The book Schlafly uses in his course is apparently a review book,[47] and not a proper textbook.[48] AP courses use college-level textbooks. A comparison between Schlafly's course and the AP course can be seen here.

Oddly enough, Schlafly admits that he is not convinced of his own ability to qualify the children he teaches for college,[49] as he does not follow the expected curricula. He had consequentially sought "suggestions" from his community of students and editors as to how he might do so.

Schlafly believes that girls are less intelligent than boys and has said "Think girls can excel in math as well as boys can? Liberals teach they can, which is teaching a falsehood."[50] He also derided the findings of a report which showed no difference in educational ability between genders as "politically correct." His attitude is further apparent on the examinations for his American History course, in which girls are given 15% fewer questions than boys but the same amount of time to finish it.[51] Furthermore, he disapproves of inter-gender competition[52][53][54] and his course curriculum reflects this. He has argued that gender differences are clear in mathematical ability in universities,[55] saying that there's no reason God would have created men and women the same, and that they have very different physical appearances.[56] The AP exam, SAT-II, and college exams make no such distinction for female students.

This opinion contrasts with most educational studies. An American Psychological Association (APA) study found no difference in achievement across the gender gap in 7.2 million students nationwide, and the National Science Foundation found that "girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests".[57] And while there are indeed fewer women working today in science and mathematical fields than men, many studies[58] show that the reason for the imbalance is because women are in the minority and societal norms are being perpetuated.[59][60] The outstanding achievements of women scientists,[61] mathematicians[62] and astronauts[63] are well documented, and most teachers encourage their female students, but Schlafly actively discourages his from attempting to compete with boys. There have even been public protests from his female students,[64] but nevertheless he continues to pursue his agenda.

Schlafly's view on gender roles extends into adulthood — he has mocked the idea of a woman wanting to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, suggesting that a woman wanting to "act like businessman and aspire to run a restaurant is feminist."[65] In a news posting about the death of a female politician who had tried to pass an Equal Rights Bill "which would have required identical treatment of men and women, and boys and girls," he referred to such a goal as "feminist."'

Conventional educational wisdom dictates that smaller class sizes are preferable because of the individual attention a teacher can give each student, but Schlafly believes the opposite is true - that in fact larger class sizes are better. This notion is particularly strange given his overwhelming support for homeschooling, which would be expected to have a very small class size. He defended his ideas in an essay at Conservapedia.[66] Our own defense of smaller classes, and a rebuttal to the individual points made by Mr. Schlafly, can be seen here.

The notion that smaller class sizes are preferable for a child's education is so universally acknowledged that class size is an important factor in official college rankings (smaller average class size yielding a higher rank on the listings).[67] If you intend to enroll your child in one of Mr. Schlafly's classes under the impression that your child will be in a smaller, more intimate environment, and will receive more personal attention than in a public school classroom, you are likely mistaken.

Schlafly frequently claims expertise in whatever subject he is debating, and has repeatedly attacked and overturned opinion, evidence, and references by qualified editors, making unsubstantiated claims that are opinion, assertion, or uneducated guesses, and of which he brooks no criticism. He has declared himself supremely knowledgeable in the fields of anthropology,[68] astronomy, biblical scholarship and translation,[69] the entertainment industry,[70][71][72][73][74][75] microbiology,[76] nutrition,[77] oncology,[70] psychiatry,[78][79]mathematics, relativity,[80] statistics,[81][82] and world history.[83][84][85] (For a detailed list of claims, see here.)

Schlafly is openly contemptuous of credentialed experts,[86] particularly so when they conflict with his uncited assertions. His slogan "Don't read a book to learn, write a book to learn"[87] underlines this stance, and while this statement may seem impressively philosophical at first glance, it becomes less so after one gives more than one second's thought as to what it actually means. Schlafly proposes that editing Conservapedia is a better way to learn than "reading a book, attending a seminar, ... discussing with people [sic]"[88] and that "In merely a few spare minutes or hours, the participants in The Conservative Bible Project have learned more than they could have after spending 10x or 100x many hours in any other medium."[88] He considers Conservapedia to be one of the greatest achievements throughout history.[89]

Despite his claims of expertise in numerous fields, Schlafly often makes distinctive errors both in his online lectures and when posting on Conservapedia. Some of his more blatant factual errors are listed below.

Arguing, against all evidence to the contrary, that Fidel Castro died sometime before December 2009,[90] going so far as to suggest that the Pope was duped by a Castro double following their meeting in March 2012.[91]

Arguing, with no supporting evidence and against the fact that the the monarch is officially the head of the Church of England, that Great Britain is "atheistic."

Arguing that British people are poor at maths and spelling despite having no statistics to support this and frequently displaying a lack of skill in grammar and spelling himself.

Schlafly spends little time if any providing students with writing guidance.[92] He is a native English speaker, but his own contributions are rife with poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling, which remain uncorrected and unacknowledged. Examples include:

In spite of these mistakes, Schlafly often claims expertise in spelling, grammar and punctuation, and usually comments negatively when his students make spelling mistakes. These responses typically have no bearing on the suggestions put to him,[96][97] such as when Schlafly deflects attention from his unsubstantiated encyclopedia entries concerning Barack Obama as a Muslim.[98] By criticizing the contributor's spelling instead, and with an unrelenting emphasis on what he regards to be liberal,[99] the British English spelling of the word "honor/honour" for example is, on its own terms, taken as being not only non-American, but "liberal," because it is non-American.

Despite claiming to have taught a "World History" class, Schlafly is not above ignoring history altogether, in order to support his own assertions.

Having previously decided that atheists do not support underdogs,[100] and thus by implication the "atheistic" British do not support underdogs, Schlafly went on to say firstly that "the Brits did not support the underdog in WWII, until they became one themselves,"[101] which he later clarified by saying, "Britain was just fine with Hitler running over neighboring underdog countries. Didn't Neville Chamberlain even receive a hero's reception for siding with Germany?"[102] This shows either complete ignorance of a topic he is supposed to have taught to school children, or willful twisting of the facts to suit his current agenda.

Either trait is unbecoming behaviour in somebody with aspirations to be a teacher.

Mr. Schlafly grades his students' homework publicly, online. The students' answers are posted, and Mr. Schlafly provides notes, commentary, corrections and gradings for all to see- not just other students, but anyone who happens to be reading Conservapedia, including people who are not supportive of the students. Some educators would argue this is neither fair nor appropriate, and that a private teacher-student relationship when grading allows greater mutual understanding and a less judgmental educational environment. Recent examples of public grading can be seen on Conservapedia.[103][104][105][106]

Schlafly derides grade inflation in liberal schools. However, when grading his students' homework, Mr. Schlafly has yet to give less than 8 out of 10 correct marks on any question (except under exceptional circumstances; see below), even if the answer is clearly wrong.[107] Additionally, a typical score for a homework assignment containing various errors and the most cursory of answers is 98%.[108][109]
The reasons for this inflation remain unclear, although it may just be because Schlafly himself lacks the proper knowledge to assess his students' performance. Whatever the reasoning, it should be obvious that a student who is used to receiving 98% on poorly performed tests will not be sufficiently prepared for real-life grading, if they subsequently attend College or University.

Schlafly's guidance as to how his American History course students should focus their studying time left many scratching their heads as to his intent:

“”You will spend a certain amount of time preparing for the midterm exam. Call that amount of time "x". How you allocate that time to different areas of 1500-1877 will make a difference on how well you do on the exam. If you spend 90% of x on the period between 1500 and 1700, then you will do poorly on 90% of the questions, because they will be from the period 1700 to 1877. You would have done far better to spend the 90% of x on the time period that will have 90% of the questions.[110]

This kind of poor communication with his students perhaps explains the basic nature of many of his students' examination answers.

Schlafly has a very poor opinion of public schools in the US, and repeatedly disparages them in comments, articles and on the Conservapedia "News feed,"[111] but he has also personalized this issue and mocked the students of such schools themselves.[112] This provides an interesting insight into this educator's mindset to see him publicly mock young students, even if he does not agree with their beliefs.

Schlafly will brook no criticism of his educational practices and standards — even when confronted by students with well-supported and thought-out critiques of his work. A student named RexBanner, who claimed to represent a group of students taking Schlafly's World History course in October 2011, pointed to a number of inconsistencies in grading and wrong answers being given full marks.[113] Schlafly called the criticism "nitpicky."[114] Banner further queried Schlafly, questioning his competency and professionalism.[115] After a second user asked about RexBanner's concerns, and another message from Banner, Schlafly promised to look into the matter,[116] but subsequently "trimmed" the conversation from his talk page, leaving the criticisms unanswered.[117] Schlafly has also almost consistently incorporated his personal opinion into comments, especially when the student is (more) factually accurate than he is. In one example, a student doubted the idea that Adam and Eve are only six thousand years old because of cave paintings, and Schlafly said, "The cave paintings lack any corroborating evidence, and there are good questions to ask about whether the paintings were dated or simply some sediment nearby (probably the latter). If mankind were as old as 20,000 B.C., then I would expect writings or civilizations, which are much older than what has been discovered, to be found,"[118] which suggests that he either a) doesn't know what "nomadic" means, or b) is completely ignorant of the fact that humans were nomadic during the Paleolithic age.

In a country where adolescents are struggling to maintain high literacy, Schlafly has voiced an unusual (for an educator) disdain for the printed word, approving of the anticipated closing of a city's only bookstore as follows: "Nearly 250,000 people will soon be without a single bookstore. Most books (other than the Bible) are liberal claptrap anyway, so this is probably good news." He has also celebrated the liquidation sales of some Borders bookstores, saying that "Liberal claptrap is available at record-low prices!"[119]

Schlafly is highly dismissive of academia and academics in general,[120][121] and believes that "the process of inducing people to rely on 'the perceived view of experts' is a misleading one." Schlafly's view is that learning is best achieved by ignoring experienced, qualified researchers in any given field and instead "thinking for oneself."[121][122] Throughout Conservapedia, many other examples of this philosophy exist.

Additionally, the Conservapedia article Professor values, created and written mostly by Schlafly, is clear in its disregard for academics.

In a March 2008 appearance on CBC's late-night show The Hour, Schlafly stated about Conservapedia: "I don't have to live with what's printed in the newspaper, I don't have to take what's put out by Wikipedia. We've got our own way to express knowledge and the more that we can clear out the liberal bias that erodes our faith, the better."[123]

Andrew Schlafly politicizes most topics he teaches. He believes that movies, books and music have underlying political messages that are either liberal or conservative, and in particular has refused to watch any movie featuring Tom Hanks (a well known liberal) in the belief that his films push a liberal agenda.[124] He furthermore claims that the dictionary has become affected by liberal bias as it contains an entry on CE (common era).[125]

In October 2008, in order to justify teaching a very large homeschool class, Schlafly claimed that all teachers' unions were liberal, and seek smaller classes in order to enhance liberal mind control.[126] He also contended that small homeschool groups are often liberal public school teachers teaching outside their class who are thoroughly indoctrinated in the small-class mind control.[126]

Seemingly innocuous words such as "efficiency," "phonics," or "radar" also fall under Schlafly's dichotomy of liberal/conservative.[127]

Schlafly has unusual beliefs about hygiene, believing that hand-washing is an "irrational phobia"[128] ("catching disease by having unclean hands at a meal is a grossly exaggerated risk, like other phobias"[129]). His basis for this theory is that Jesus did not think that it was necessary.[130][131] This may not be an ideal approach in a classroom environment, as 'school bugs' tend to pass rapidly amongst groups of children, and vigilant hand-washing has been seen by the CDC to reduce transmission of infections by between 30 and 70%.[132]

Perhaps most concerning of all to Christian parents, Schlafly has conflicting views on the Bible. On the one hand, as a very conservative Christian with a literalist interpretation of the Bible (he prefers the NIV, although he believes it is too liberal and is "written at only the 7th Grade level"[134][135]), he views it as the authoritative work of history and science and thus believes that Genesis is a true description of the beginning of time. As a result, he holds, along with other Conservapedia administrators, Young Earth Creationist views, believing that the Earth is 6,000 - 10,000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans co-existed until recent times.

On the other hand, Schlafly also believes that certain passages of the Bible are "suspect" and have been modified since the original passages were written. In the case of the "adultress parable" (John 7:53-8:11[136]) in which Jesus invited those without sin to cast the first stone at an adulteress, he believes that these passages were inserted later in order to support a liberal worldview in which sinners are forgiven.[137] Schlafly views this behavior of Jesus to be the beginning of so-called "Moral Relativism," of which he disapproves; for this reason, he argues that this passage of the Bible is actually a hoax.[138]

Throughout Conservapedia, Schlafly uses examples from the Bible to prove his points, believing as he does that it is the infallible Word of God. Yet his conflicting beliefs that certain passages of the Bible are hoaxes complicate that belief enormously. His desire to revise the texts of the Bible and remove what he describes as "vandalism" to the Bible[139] to fit his own views disturbed many of even his closest peers at Conservapedia, as did his evident desire to disavow Christian forgiveness[138] of the adulteress in the story.

Realizing that he did not have the knowledge necessary to translate the Bible from Greek, he began a less ambitious project, The Conservative Bible Projectimg, wherein English passages were re-written, as a campaign for a widescale rewrite of the Bible to match his own values, making references to the fact that all current versions of the Bible are "dumbed down," contain passages of doubtful authenticity, are not gender-specific enough, and "improperly encourage the 'social justice' movement among Christians,"[141] among other claims. He also suggested the complete removal of Luke 23:34, where Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

He estimates the entire retranslation of the New Testament into a proper, conservative version could be achieved within three months by five translators starting from scratch. However, he has admitted he's ignorant of Greek, Hebrew and even Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.[142]

Typically part of his homeschooled courses will take place on his online encyclopedia, Conservapedia. When considering whether to have Schlafly as a teacher of your students/children it is important to consider the environment they will be exposed to on Conservapedia.

Schlafly founded Conservapedia on November 21, 2006, with the help of his homeschooled history students, to counter what he perceived as a "liberal bias" in the highly popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia. He felt the need to start the project after reading a student's assignment written using Common Era (C.E.), a type of dating notation the student found on Wikipedia, rather than Anno Domini ("In the year of the Lord") (A.D.) system that he preferred.

Schlafly strongly maintains his positions throughout the site. He keeps a watchful eye on the content posted, and he and his administrators never allow suggestive, racy or obscene material, offensive language or terminology, or racism to remain on the site. Unfortunately they do not allow anything on the site that questions their preconceived notions even when presented with credible evidence. The articles on the Theory of Relativity and evolution are probably the best examples of this mindset. He is clearly dedicated to the success of his site, and routinely makes 30-plus edits a day to the content.

Initially, it was an interesting attempt to build a conservative, Christian-friendly, pro-American encyclopedia, with his students helping write short articles on various topics (in "American History", for example) as part of their coursework in his class. Internet commentators picked up on his project in early 2007 and created a rush of traffic to the site, and there has continued to be some interest in the site ever since. Many editors from across the political spectrum were concerned about the site's content and some of Schlafly's assertions, and created accounts in order to contribute to the articles and join the discussions. As a result, instead of a group of children building an encyclopedia and having fun while learning, the site has become the battlefield of a series of power struggles in the "Culture Wars" between adults.

In 2012, Schlafly also created a Conservapedia page, incorrectly titled "gravity waves", in which he initially stated, "Gravity waves are predicted by the Theory of Relativity but, despite wasting millions of dollars looking for them, they have never been found."[147] Gravitational waves were a necessary component predicted by Albert Einstein for the Theory of Relativity to be proven correct, which is why Schlafly feels compelled to deny them. He was corrected by User:20percent,[148] who provided an update on gravitational waves, who was then banned for the given reason of "inserting false information", despite the information having been correct.[149][150] Instead, Schlafly prefers to make the generic and unbacked assertion that a "closer reading" of a 1993 paper reporting measurements of change inpulsars instead matched the data to the Theory.[151] On 11 February 2016, the day of a conference in Washington, D.C., announcing the successful discovery of gravitational waves,[152] Andrew Schlafly (User:Aschlafly), himself, commented on the discovery on his own "gravity waves" page, removing the point that User:20percent previous made: "this discovery strikes a blow to the anti-relavity argument", and replaced it with an assertion that it's all still a hoax,[153] based upon a 2010 prank that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory colleagues used to teach a lesson to always double-check their work. Additionally, Schlafly makes the claim that "Gravity waves have never been directly observed",[153] as if he expects gravitational waves to be seen with the naked eye, instead of recognizing that instruments must, inherently, be used to detect that which is invisible. Based upon Michio Kaku's suggestion that the landmark discovery deserves a Nobel Prize, Schlafly claimed that "demands immediately rang out for a Nobel Prize", dismissing the importance of the discovery, and portraying those who appreciate scientific discoveries as aggressive "demanders".[153]

↑[1] U.S. Party Index records available through the Judicial Conference of the United States Public Access to Court Electronic Records ("PACER") service, a fee-based electronic database of documents filed in federal trial court level cases, identify eight civil and two criminal matters in which Schlafly filed appearances in various United States District Courts while an attorney while at Wachtell, Lipton.

↑ In addition to language arts, math and science, public schools are required to teach 1) in the last 4 years of high school 2 years of U.S. history, including New Jersey history (civics counts as history per N.J. Stat. Ann. § 18A:35-2.1); 2) a one-year elementary school course in community civics, citizenship, and New Jersey civics, geography and history; 3) 2.5 hours per week in health, safety and physito 35-5.4."

↑ AP is an acronym for the Advanced Placement Program, a program of college-level courses at high schools around the US. The AP examinations for college entry have been administered by the non-profit College Board since 1955 and are one of a number of widely recognized examination standards commonly used to determine a student's scholastic ability.